Created and led by women for women, you’ll be safely guided by our skilled and caring team as you unravel the old and seed the new.

Peeling back the restrictive layers, so you can unashamedly ‘be’ who you really are; a powerful channel for light, truth, and Source in your creative endeavors, work, relationships, communities and the world.

Practice

Indigenous Q’ero Earth Keepers, ancestors of the Inca’s, will lead us in grounding into our roots and establishing right relationship with Pachamama, the primordial womb-space of Mother nature.

Entering a Temezcal, we’ll begin to detoxify the body of impurities, poisons and pollutants in this Mesoamerican ‘sweat lodge’ experience held under the starlit sky. Known as a space for transition, similar to womb - a symbolic passage between the underworld and the heavens.

Deepening our cleanse with flower baths to prepare for Mapacho and Ayahuasca plant medicine ceremonies, led by our Tabaquera and Shipibo Maestra, who’ve both shared these traditional Amazonian medicines for lifetimes.

Discover

You will learn about the Shipibo art of traditional Amazonian plant medicine, which is the origin of Western pharmaceuticals, and how the plants and their spirits heal unresolved trauma held in the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual body in a way that our medicines simply can’t.

Forced to make themselves untraceable during the Spanish invasion Q’ero Shamans have lived isolated from the outside world for centuries. They call themselves paqos or priest healers, as they work in deep connection to the Cosmos, and it’s three levels — Hanaq Pacha (the upper world) the Kay Pacha ( This middle world) and the Uku Pacha ( the Underground). Using ancient rituals they’ll help us remember how we are each ‘sacred as everything in this world’

Our team of teachers and facilitators will provide pyschoeducation and therapeutic support to help you understand and process insights gained regarding your ‘shadow’ during ceremony.

You’ll also develop tools and skills that will help you to fully integrate these practices into everyday living when you return home.

Venue

Yoga Mandala is an ‘away from it all’ space of harmony, nestled in nurturing surroundings of native flowers and sparkling streams at the base of the Andes mountains, where the Inca believe the Apu’s or mountain spirits assist humans in connecting with heaven and it’s angelic energies.

Lovingly owned and operated by a family who care deeply for the environment, this unique bio-constructed center, which is designed to have low-impact on the eco-system, combines outstanding service with great natural beauty, ensuring you’ll feel comfortably at home.

The kitchen offers a vegetarian/vegan menu using locally grown organic food with fresh ingredients from their own garden. All allergies and dietary needs can be catered to.

Outside of the gorgeous chakra-inspired bedrooms, there are plenty of places to relax and enjoy the stunning views, or snuggle in the lounge and tell stories at night by the fireside.

Located in the village of Huandar Chico near Calca, in the heart of the Sacred Valley, just an hours drive from Cusco, 20 mins from Urubamba or 40 mins from Pisac.

Gemini, Womb * Sense Founder

Gemini Adams, E-RYT, C-TREP, is passionate about gently and safely unraveling the shadowy ‘stuff’ that sits behind our suffering to bring relief and restore an authentic state of wellbeing to mind, body, heart and soul.

she’s transformed countless women’s lives, both in clinical settings, privately and in the

100’s of classes, workshops and retreats she’s led across the globe.

She currently works with the Center for Relational Healing, a relational trauma and addiction recovery center in Los Angeles, and in private practice, treating people from all walks of life.

Gemini created Womb * Sense with the intention of healing women’s pain, grief and shame.

From birth, abortion, menstruation, miscarriage, stillbirth, sexual assault or abuse, cultural repression and attack of the feminine, that all cause us to disconnect from ‘down there.’

To help women reinstate physiological, emotional and psychological wellbeing, reclaim their inner-peace, pleasure and ability to ‘be’ who they truly are.

Having suffered the traumas of bullying, her parent’s divorce, sexual abuse, substance addiction, and her mother dying from cancer at a young age, she truly ‘get’s it’ and is able to relate deeply.

Despite starting yoga, meditation and exploring talk therapy in her early 20’s, it was the potent combination of Somatic Experiencing and plant medicine that finally healed her Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD).

“One of the most inspiring women I’ve ever met. Gemini is an incredible healer with such a calming, warm presence that naturally encourages everyone to feel safe. She makes youfeel heard, valued, and free to express yourself.” — Retreat Guru

Olga, Shipibo Curandera

Olga was born into the Shipibo — one of 14 indigenous tribes living in the Amazon basin.

She grew up in Roaboya, a native community on the river near Pucallpa named after Meraya, a legendarily powerful Ayahuascero, where she still lives with her family.

As a young child, she remembers watching her grandparents preparing remedies from the forest plants to heal people. Through quiet observation of her elders combined with years of study she followed her calling, becoming a skilled native medicine woman or curandera.

Olga frequently leads ceremony in partnership with her husband Americo, also a Shipibo curandero at the Temple of the Way of Light — a pioneering plant medicine centre in Iquitos. They have two children who are following in their parent’s footsteps, also training as curanderos.

A unique aspect of the Shipibo culture is the tradition, whereby the potent healing songs or icaros which provide healing, abundance, protection and harmony to their recipients during ceremony, are also woven into cloth as elaborate geometrical designs that function like a musical score.

Olga dreams of inspiring the younger generation to continue these healing traditions and is passionate about her vocation; “I love sharing my medicine and knowledge with all

the patience and care that I can possibly give.”

According to The Ayahuasca Foundation, the Shipibo tradition is widely regarded as the most intact and profound of the indigenous peoples that use ayahuasca, with one underlying principle that pervades the entire practice: cleanliness. The basic understanding is that within every living being, every cell, is an innate movement towards wholeness and harmony.

Merav, Tobaquera

Merav Artzi left the concrete jungle of Tel Aviv behind for the more lush version in the Amazon, where she apprenticed with the highly regarded Maestro Ernesto Garcia Torres.

Developing her healing abilities for eight years with numerous medicinal plants, before eventually becoming a Tabaquera.

She now works specifically with Nicotiana Rustica — a plant affectionally known as jungle tobacco or ‘mapacho,’ which has been cultivated by indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon and used for thousands of years to clean the blood of impurities, the body of negative energy, sickness and to release repressed emotions from unresolved traumas and limiting patterns.

Merav is a highly respected healer with a powerful ability to hold space for the deepest wounds to be revealed and released.

She leads ‘mapacho’ ceremony and diets in Peru and around the world.

Lovingly applying her natural gifts of warmth, humor and tender care with a fierce warrior spirit she ensures you’re safely held during the ceremonial space and that you can’t bypass your own truth.

Merav has a profound connection to spirit, her Hebrew lineage combined with ancient wisdom and an incredible knowledge of traditional plant medicine.

“Merav nurtured when needed and nudged when it was necessary. After working with her I finally feel grounded and free!” — Retreat Guru

Marta, Facilitator & Yoga Teacher

After becoming a student of Yoga at the tender age of 14, over the past 20 plus years she’s cultivated both her personal practice and teaching skills with Jivamukti, Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Yin.

Thanks to extensive study in India, Marta’s also developed a deep knowledge of yogic philosophy, science and a love for pranayama and meditation.

Wanderlust both by nature and in name, she’s taught at leading healing centers and yoga schools in Asia, Europe and South America.

Marta has been blessed to spend the past few years immersed in studying indigenous healing traditions with communities including the Shipibo and Mestizo in the Amazon, Q’eros in the Andes, Kogi in Colombia, and the wonderful cultures of Mexica and Lakota.

Like many of us, she's battled the demons of addiction, past traumas, and the unraveling of a consumer lifestyle to one of compassionate contribution, simplicity and satisfaction, which she attributes to the path of Yoga, supported by her work with the plant medicines.

Working as a teacher at the Temple of the Way of Light — a pioneering plant medicine centre in Iquitos — and hosting transformative retreats independently, she blends her expertise from these two diverse, yet complementary worlds, both as teacher and facilitator.

Apply to Attend

Particularly those with a family history of psychosis or schizophrenia, anyone who is on long-term medication for depression, or those who’ve experienced severe trauma in childhood.

In order to protect you, other guests, and our team from any adverse situations, we require you to complete a confidential questionnaire for this retreat when booking.

It’s vital that you disclose all prior mental and physical health conditions, as well as any current supplements or prescribed medications, as some have been found to be dangerously incompatible with plant medicine.

If you are pregnant, attempting to become so, have a heart condition, chronic high blood pressure, or have ever been admitted into psychiatric care, please do not apply.

Participants will only be accepted after a full screening call with our team.

Preparation for this retreat is essential and you will be asked to commit to the ‘dieta’ developed over centuries by the Shipibo for working safely and effectively with plants.

This includes abstaining from alcohol, all street drugs - including cannabis products - pork, spicy and icy foods, as well as sexual activity for 2 weeks prior to the retreat.

Full dietary and preparation guidelines will be sent when your booking is approved.

The preparation determines the effectiveness of the ceremony work, and is designed to ensure your body and mind are already open to the subtle energies of these healing plants.

Following the retreat, we request that you continue the ‘dieta’ for a further 2 weeks. Essentially, this process is like energetic, spiritual and emotional surgery, which requires ongoing recovery and integration to get the best results.

Many find they make substantial and long-term lifestyle and dietary changes as a consequence.

Share with friends, or make new ones, in this chakra-inspired beautiful bedroom.
Features access to and garden view + a private bathroom.
Accommodation, residential meals, retreat progam, ceremonies and all activities included.

Who’s interested

Your Organizer

Gemini Adams, E-RYT, C-TREP, is passionate about gently and safely unraveling the shadowy ‘stuff’ that sits behind our suffering to bring relief and restore an authentic state of wellbeing to mind, body, heart and soul.
Specializing in body-oriented psychotherapy, somatic practices, and trauma-informed yoga, she’s transformed countless women’s lives, both in clinical settings, privately and in the 100’s of classes, workshops and retreats she’s led across the globe.